I keep tossing around the idea of making an IIPA without the high alcohol content, and then also making it in an amber variation. Here's what I have in mind so far, though I'm considering adding some Victory to it:

I think it is a bit overhopped. You are going to find that IPAs have higher ABV and higher IBUs for a reason...the IBUs balance the ABV and vice-versa.

When you start throwing high IBUs at a lower gravity beer with less malt body, like an amber, you kinda throw that balance out of wack to where you are showcasing the hop bitterness.

If you like hop bitterness, go for it. Nothing wrong with that recipe, just note that you are going to taste almost no malt character up front and through the middle of the palate, it's going to be almost all hop bitterness. Some peeps like that, but most don't.

7 oz of late hop additions is just too much. It looks like you were purposely focusing on the flavor and aroma additions and downplaying the bittering addition, so you were on the right track, but you are just doing so much late additions that it is going to contribute quite a bit to bitterness anyway.

I'd tone those 15/5 additions down to 1.0-1.5 oz each, and keep the dry hop to 7 days before bottling/kegging instead of 14. There's not much to be gained by dryhopping for 14 days instead of 7-10. I think you get the best, freshest dry hop aroma into you beer if you dryhop for 7 days. Play with the numbers, but I think you want this beer to be closer to 60 IBUs for the amber malt character to show up like it should.

Centenial is friggin awesomely smooth as a flavor hop if you don't overdo it, and has great floral aromas that compliment an amber nicely, so great hop choice!

Great point Topher. I think of the new trend of "session IPA", many of those beers are extremely one dimensional, and while full of hops flavor and aroma, they're also overly bitter IMO. They always strike me as lacking character.

I would say for something like you have, 70-80 IBU should be your top end, and the vast bulk of those IBU should come from late additions. Go very light on the bittering hops, like maybe a half oz of centens, move the rest to late adds and maybe even beef those late adds up to make up the IBU. Other than that, I like your recipe. Hopped up ambers and reds (darker pale ales) are really nice if done properly.

There is a ibu to gravity ratio. Ibu divided by og. So 100 ibu divided by 65 = 1.53 a perfectly balanced beer is at .5, you don't want to exceed 1.00. The higher you are the more bitter, the lower the more malty. I brewed an ipa with 75 ibus and a gravity of 66 and its overly bitter. So I can't imagine 100 ibus with a gravity of 65. Either raise the gravity or drop The ibus. But no one can tell you what you like. So maybe it will turn out awesome , if that's the way you like your beer

There's also a difference in the perception of bitter flavor between 30 IBU from a bittering addition and 30 IBU from late adds. Say you take the same gravity wort, split in half; hop half to 30 calculated IBU with a 60 min add, the other half to 30 with a 5 minute add. The first beer is going to be quite bitter, with almost no hops flavor or aroma. The second will still be bitter, but the perception of that bitterness with be much lower, it will come across as a very bitter hop flavor. The BU:GU ratio is great, but you also need to pay attention to where those IBU come from in the boil.

In the beginning I came at my IPA's with a balanced hopping approach and have found them all to be quite bitter. Similar to Ranger, which I really like. But I'm now attempting to bring out the hop flavor as I typically find it in many other American IPA's, and so I've reduced my bittering addition and swung it around to the other additions. I've yet to have one mature to try though.

But if it will end up being way out of proportion than I will reduce the IBU's. I had read something about the hops giving beer a nice cold fighting ability and came up with the idea to try an IIPA with IPA alcohol content. I am also assuming that it will end up being 7% ABV as about 85% of my beer get an extra 0.5% ABV, especially the higher in content they are. But even at 7% it'd still be way out of whack!

Another reason I ended up with 8 oz of Centennial for it is that I can get a good deal on an 8 oz package from MoreBeer and figured I'd use it all up in the one.

I'll adjust it and try to target 80-85 IBU's to see...

Thanks!

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Revvy

...tasting a beer at 1 week, and again at 2....that to me just means there 2 less beers that are actually tasting good and are ready at the end.

"Anyway on the wall was this sign. People who drink light beer don't really like beer. They just like to piss a lot."

"Were I to leave where else would I go? Your words of life and of truth You hold." - Third Day

In the beginning I came at my IPA's with a balanced hopping approach and have found them all to be quite bitter. Similar to Ranger, which I really like. But I'm now attempting to bring out the hop flavor as I typically find it in many other American IPA's, and so I've reduced my bittering addition and swung it around to the other additions. I've yet to have one mature to try though.I'll adjust it and try to target 80-85 IBU's to see...

Thanks!

You've got the right idea. One thing I've been doing for a lot of flavor and aroma w/o throwing the IBU off the charts is a flameout steep/whirlpool. I add my "0" min hops to a gentle whirlpool, cover and let steep for ~20 mins, or until the wort drops below, say, 200 F. I go for a sizable addition here, some times it's even the bulk of the hops for things like IPA. It gives big flavor and aroma, and yeah, it'll add a little IBU (maybe like that of a 5 min add), but it's the kind of bitterness that will just meld with the flavor to make it come across like a fresh, bitter hop.

I've gone for 70 IBU's instead as I've yet to see what my changes in the additions have done, and as was said I can always rebred it with more hops later.

So I've added 1/4 lb light DME and 1/2 lb of Victory which brought the OG up to 1.068 (though it'll likely be over 1.070) and dropped the flavoring, aromatic, and dry hopping to 1.5 oz. And I'll dry hop for 7-10 days as suggested.

Thanks fellas!

__________________

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revvy

...tasting a beer at 1 week, and again at 2....that to me just means there 2 less beers that are actually tasting good and are ready at the end.

"Anyway on the wall was this sign. People who drink light beer don't really like beer. They just like to piss a lot."

"Were I to leave where else would I go? Your words of life and of truth You hold." - Third Day